STEVEN GERRARD is confident Rangers will reap the rewards of the updates to the Hummel Training Centre.

Rangers are investing significant sums to improve the facilities at their Milngavie base to ensure the Light Blues squad have the best working environment possible.

A new stand and dome with indoor pitch are being built, while the gym and canteen areas have already been upgraded as Gerrard puts his stamp on Auchenhowie.

Gerrard said: “When I came into the training ground you could see in its day it was a sensational environment and because of whatever has gone at the club its become tired and dated.

“We’re now trying to create first and foremost a football team to compete and a squad that can compete. We have fallen short where we sit right now but around that it’s important to create an elite environment.

“We’re trying to attract elite players and the likes of Defoe and Davis are used to good. I’ve come from elite and good at Liverpool and there are certain areas at this club that have fallen behind.

“They have become tired on the eye so we have identified the key areas to improve.

“We haven’t got the luxury to knock it down, start again or redecorate the whole thing but we have identified the areas where the players spend the most time - the dressing-rooms, the gymnasium, the canteen.

“We need a better area for them and their families at Ibrox, we need a Desso training pitch, they need more privacy when they train.

“We have introduced a cryochamber for recovery. We’re doing everything in our power to adapt the training ground and Ibrox and bring it up to scratch and to make the environment as best we can.

“We’re putting a dome over one of the pitches for the young kids. You look out the window at the youngsters some afternoon and they are training in -2 and they are only this big.

“We need better facilities for the academy hence the dome. We’re putting a stand in so we can play reserve games closer to our facility and we also improve the floodlighting.

“Obviously the Ladies team is coming and we’re improving their facilities."

One of the changes that is in the process of being completed is a large fence that surrounds one of the training pitches at the Centre.

Gerrard is keen to stop his team news and tactics being leaked from within the camp.

He said: “People were parking down towards Possil when they came here so we now have more car spaces at the training ground.

“My team got out five times on the spin because people were seeing us train and this is a place where people can’t hold their own water!

“We need to get up to speed and evolve as well as improving things on the pitch we have to improve off the pitch and that’s what we are doing.

“It’s a private ground, but a lot of the people who work for Rangers are Rangers fans and so are their mates and they all want to know my team and my style and my tactics.

“That happened at Liverpool and every club, but when we work tactically I want to work privately and for the team to stay in house.

“The fence will be there with adverts on it and I will know then if the team gets out where it’s coming from. At the minute it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”